good temperature?

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fhintz

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Whats a rough idea of a good temperature for the area the little guy spends most of his time in?

I have a 125 gallon tank thats basically divided into thirds. Right now, he spends almost all of his time in his "hide" (plastic hollow half lug tortoise hut), which is on the left third of the tank. The temperature/humidity gauge there generally reads about 82F. I have a ceramic heat emitter over the middle third of the tank, but the little guy doesn't seem to want to venture out there. I think I'll move that over to his hide area, but I'm just curious as to a rough idea of a number to shoot for. I understand they hide a lot, so I'm not certain I'd notice a big difference in his behavior, but my concern is that he doesn't seem to be heading out to his water dishes enough (I have 2, a larger one in the center and a smaller one in the corner by his hide).

The humidity needs some work too as it tends to drift down to about 45%. I have a hand held mister that I use to get it up as often as I can. I think I'm going to get an automatic mister, especially for when I work, and convert the substrat to sphagnum moss (using Exo Terra Jungle Bark right now). Also, I'm thinking about getting some live plants for the opposite end (he hasn't really gone there at all yet). I have a bunch of plastic ones around his hide so far.

I'm gonna try to attach a picture of his home, but its from just before I got him. I since switched out the heat lamp for the ceramic heat emitter and am not really using the UVB lights.

Any advice on temperature would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Frank
 

Redfoot NERD

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You will want to use this as a model.. http://www.redfoots.com/henclose.htm - bump those temps up to mid-80's.. wrap that glass to create a 'sight-barrier'.. and tone down the lighting - a spotlight over his food and water dish.

You have a good space for him and once you get the lighting and temps right you'll see a big change in his activity. What's his diet and SCL [ straight carapace length ]?

Hope this helps.

Keep us posted...

Terry K
 

Candy

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Good looking enclosure Frank. I use to use bark for Dale, but the moss keeps the humidity better and Dale loves to hide in it as well. Someone once gave me the advice to lay a wet towel on the top of the enclosure and that would help and it does. I wet it about every two days or so of course I do have a top to my enclosure and it looks like you also do. I have a heat emitter for Dale (150 watts) that I keep on one side only and that seems to keep his temp on that side at around 85 degrees. He seems to like it best when it's at that temp. At night I have a different 75 watt red light that I put on him so the temp. drops a bit. Good luck with your tortoise hope this helps some. :) I think the automatic mister idea sounds really good. If I'm correct Tim/Robin have said that they have that for some of theirs. In fact I think that there's a thread on how to make your own from Tim on here somewhere.
 

Redfoot NERD

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Keep in mind.. redfoot tortoises "basically" live in a region [ Northern half ] of South America where the temps don't change that much year 'round. My friends in Brazil and Venezuela have told me there are 2 seasons: WET & DRY!

You can check the Temps & Humidity with this great site - WORLDWIDE.. http://www.wunderground.com/global/Region/SA/2xST.html

OR.. Africa - http://www.wunderground.com/global/Region/AF/2xST.html

OR for you European/Northern Asia keepers - http://www.wunderground.com/global/Region/EU/2xST.html

http://www.wunderground.com/global/Region/AS/2xST.html

Now you will never have to guess or be confused about the CORRECT temps for your torts NIGHT or DAY .. YEAR 'ROUND. Of course now you have to figure out where yours comes from..
GRIN.gif


Great site huh?

Terry K
 

fhintz

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Moved the heat emitter over his hide, and whether it was that or he was just having a good day, he was out and exploring today. :)

His diet is going to be 2 days greens, 1 day fruit, 2 days greens, 1 day fruit, then 1 day protein.

So far, the greens have been Collard greens and Radicchio, and the fruits have been apples, blueberries, carrots and squash. Need to get to the store today for cat food for the protein.

I've taken down all the lights, save for 1 UVB hood that I just use occassionally for lighting mainly.
 

tortoisenerd

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In my opinion radicchio is not a good staple food and more of a treat. Look up the calcium:phosphorus ratio compared to some other greens and see what you think. Just a fyi. I still feed it, but only part of spring mix for example. The more variety you can feed the better. I always buy spring mix, and then rotate through other greens to feed with it. Also, i grow some stuff to supplement. I have a russian though so you can't directly compare, but the greens are mostly the same. Best wishes!
 

DoctorCosmonaut

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I would say 87-92F at one end and around 80-85F at the other end... but at night have where it sleeps be around 70F. And its good you are trying to raise your humidity because its way low... I would recommend 75-90%. Good luck! Beautiful guy
 

Crazy1

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Exo Terra Jungle Bark is 100% fir bark. This can cause eye problems and the fumes can be toxic to torts. Please change this to the spharnum moss ASAP.

Terry great sites I stickied it to the General Tortoise Forum. I believe by checking Brazil it is the rainy season there right now. And I believe that you do not have to drop the temps in the RF enclosure much if at all if you have them set at about mid 80s, was his point.
 

Madkins007

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I can't seem to open the photos, but...

Temps: Its been my limited experience so far that they generally like the low to mid 80's than the warmer 88F+, but offering a good range is the best idea. Night time temp drops do not seem to make a big difference for this species, but a few degrees is probably a good idea- both for them an for your winter heating bill!

Humidity: Offering a high humidity in at least some of the habitat will be a good idea, but the solution you use needs to work in your local climate or microhabitat- if you live in a cold, dry climate, you need a different solution than others might. Here in Omaha, I kept running into the problem of a clammy substrate- our house was kept rather cool and the humidity was really low. Misting just sucked out immediately, and a lightly dampened moss substrate dried out in a couple hours. More most/moisture resulted in a cool, wet substrate. Yuck. Closing the habitat helped, but caused other problems for me.

I'll be changing things up when I overhaul the indoors habitat this summer in preparation for winter. Room humidifier, humidity bags (moss sewn into linen bags, soaked and hung in the hides or other semi-enclosed areas), and a new substrate design using a layer of pebbles in the bottom and a heat source set to about 88F in or under that layer. The idea is to pour water into the layer, it gets heated, turns to vapor and percolates up through the substrate without soaking it. As it rises, it creates a nice layer of humidity right at ground level. (You have to choose your heating element carefully for this to work and be safe.)

Lighting: The rule seems to be the younger they are, the less light they want or appreciate.

Diet: Besides the fact that carrots and squash are not fruits, the others are not a big deal, but you would probably get better results with more variety, like strawberries, black plums, melon, and various tropical fruits. Terry's diet is good choice- simple to follow and effective.

I cannot claim the kind of success Terry has, but my variant of his diet is to add some chopped 'rabbit hay' (bags of mixed grasses for rabbits, etc.) to the greens days for some fiber, replace a fruit day with a 'mixed veggies' day for variety (green peppers, shredded carrot, squash, an occasional tomato, broccoli, whatever else looks good on the salad bar), and I generally use live bugs, caterpillars or worms on most meat days. (I use the cat how on several meat days, but I enjoy watching my torts go after the live food.
 

Redfoot NERD

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Madkins007 said:
I can't seem to open the photos, but...

Temps: Its been my limited experience so far that they generally like the low to mid 80's than the warmer 88F+, but offering a good range is the best idea. Night time temp drops do not seem to make a big difference for this species, but a few degrees is probably a good idea- both for them an for your winter heating bill!

Humidity: Offering a high humidity in at least some of the habitat will be a good idea, but the solution you use needs to work in your local climate or microhabitat- if you live in a cold, dry climate, you need a different solution than others might. Here in Omaha, I kept running into the problem of a clammy substrate- our house was kept rather cool and the humidity was really low. Misting just sucked out immediately, and a lightly dampened moss substrate dried out in a couple hours. More most/moisture resulted in a cool, wet substrate. Yuck. Closing the habitat helped, but caused other problems for me.

I'll be changing things up when I overhaul the indoors habitat this summer in preparation for winter. Room humidifier, humidity bags (moss sewn into linen bags, soaked and hung in the hides or other semi-enclosed areas), and a new substrate design using a layer of pebbles in the bottom and a heat source set to about 88F in or under that layer. The idea is to pour water into the layer, it gets heated, turns to vapor and percolates up through the substrate without soaking it. As it rises, it creates a nice layer of humidity right at ground level. (You have to choose your heating element carefully for this to work and be safe.)

Lighting: The rule seems to be the younger they are, the less light they want or appreciate.

Diet: Besides the fact that carrots and squash are not fruits, the others are not a big deal, but you would probably get better results with more variety, like strawberries, black plums, melon, and various tropical fruits. Terry's diet is good choice- simple to follow and effective.

I cannot claim the kind of success Terry has, but my variant of his diet is to add some chopped 'rabbit hay' (bags of mixed grasses for rabbits, etc.) to the greens days for some fiber, replace a fruit day with a 'mixed veggies' day for variety (green peppers, shredded carrot, squash, an occasional tomato, broccoli, whatever else looks good on the salad bar), and I generally use live bugs, caterpillars or worms on most meat days. (I use the cat how on several meat days, but I enjoy watching my torts go after the live food.

Sorry Mark.. but all that seems too confusing, costly and time consuming for me. What's wrong with going with what has proven to work? Especially: the simpler the diet.. the better!

You trying to re-invent the wheel?

NERD

fhintz said:
Moved the heat emitter over his hide, and whether it was that or he was just having a good day, he was out and exploring today. :)

His diet is going to be 2 days greens, 1 day fruit, 2 days greens, 1 day fruit, then 1 day protein.

So far, the greens have been Collard greens and Radicchio, and the fruits have been apples, blueberries, carrots and squash. Need to get to the store today for cat food for the protein.

I've taken down all the lights, save for 1 UVB hood that I just use occassionally for lighting mainly.

Good to hear Frank!

Amazing how watching, etc. these guys since '98.. can create a 'system' that is simple and works! It's almost always just that "little" thing/change that makes the difference!

Stay with the simple diet [ cabbage.. apples.. carrots.. NOT! ]

You have a 'new' redfoot now!

An example of one of my 3 year-olds.. must work huh?

105MissX.jpg


NERD
 
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